The Role Of Ruth In Nao's Journal

According to Brenda Shoshanna, an author and psychologist, “Unless we base our sense of identity upon the truth of who we are, it is impossible to attain true happiness” Everyone on Earth has their own unique identity, and if they do not have an identity they will always be struggling to find it. In The Color of Water by James McBride, the author tries to understand his mother’s identity in hopes that it will help him find his own as well. After learning his mother’s life story and going back to her hometown, James finds that Ruth’s family made the most impact on her identity because of her hypocritical father, kind mother, and her evasive siblings.

* The author gives the story from two different perspectives one from the mother’s perspective, Ruth, and the other from the son’s perspective, James.

In the book The Color of Water by James Mcbride the main character Ruchel, later Ruth, lived through some of the most dangerous and prejudice times in history. Being part of a Jewish immigrant family from Poland, Ruth’s childhood was everything but easy. Her father, Tateh, was a dictative man who mistreated his family and tried to control every aspect of their life. He also forced his racist and anti-Christian views upon those around him. Ruth’s mother, Mameh, was not much better than her father. Mameh allowed herself to be suppressed by Tateh and did little to help with the abuse of her children. As Ruth grew up her parents flaws helped to mold her into the person she became.

In the book, The Color of Water, Ruth’s past is very unknown and hidden to all of her children. James wants to find out more about his mother’s past so he decides to go to his mother’s old synagogue. In Chapter 22, James travels to downtown Suffolk in search for the Shilsky’s family to furthermore reveal his mother’s secretive past.

After the presidency he practiced law to support his family. Although it is known that he had collected a small fortune of $350,000. He settled in a spacious house in Princeton, New Jersey. The townspeople treated him like royalty. Later in 1904 he wrote a book called Presidential problems. It was based on some of the most controversial decisions he had to make while in office. He never wrote his autobiography like he had meant to. In 1904 his eldest daughter Ruth died and freinds say that he never fully recovered and in fact he physically looked older after her death. He died in 1908 in Princeton of a gastrointestinal disease. He suffered from a sever attack while on vacation with his wife in 1908. He was immediately rushed by vehicle to

Throughout history, sports have become a regular family interest, and were very well known in the year of the “Roaring Twenties” (R, A, 2010). The weekends were always filled with baseball fans in stadiums, waiting to cheer on their favorite team or player. One of histories greatest athletes fulfilled a dream during this era and would forever be remembered as baseball hero.

man, her family cuts all ties with her and sit shiva, to prove that Ruth is no longer

Her role relates to the historical context of the novel because many people were treated badly at that

The last idea to keep in mind is the roles the females are given in the book.

of God in the story of Ruth, as well as in modern society, is eliminated.

Another function that Dr. Rank serves is that of reflecting upon the true personalities of Nora and Torvald. Rank's friendship with Nora and Torvald is thought to be the same, yet they are independently different. Nora is able to talk more seriously with Rank then she is with Torvald. This aspect of Rank's friendship with Nora becomes evident in her statement:

wants the reader to realize that Nora was not the fool she allows herself to be

     The significance of the role Twyla?s mother plays is just one twist to the way in which the story can be read. This makes the meaning of the story different to every reader. My interpretation of the details left by the author can be completely different to interpretations of someone else, and there are probably deeper meanings to the story that I didn?t even come across. This characteristic is what made this narrative unique and interesting for me to read.

Her final goal was so important to her, protecting her family, she knew she had to do whatever was necessary, even if that meant not being true to her husband or society. In the end, she realizes that it was more important to her husband his reputation, than what it had meant to Nora, all she had done for the love of her family, concluding to the raw truth that her husband didn´t really love her: he loved what she represented before society, a loving, faithful wife that compelled to all his expectations. She knew that to love her children, she needed first to understand and love herself, a thought way beyond and ahead of time, for a woman in the late 1800´s.

Ruth is experiencing a split—a struggle between opposing dimensions of herself. This conflict is between the part of her that wants to change and the other part of her that